Jé Hooper offers us a personal narrative as a both artist and a humanism.  Using the work of their beloved mentor and professor, Dr. James Hal Cone, the Father of Black Liberation Theology, and the shaping of moral imagination.  Jé explores the intersection of the negro spiritual and blues that calls for an embodied humanism.

Link: James Cone and Spirituals and Blues
https://youtu.be/2A1WWphOxfo

Jé Exodus Hooper (they/them) teaches Theatre History, current PhD candidate within the School of Interdisciplinary Arts and Ethical Humanist clergy. Both as performer and clergy within the Ethical Culture Movement and First Unitarian Society of Minneapolis, their ritual-based performance is grounded in the act of homiletics, decolonial Humanism and Black Intellectual Thought. Jé’s love for orality involves the aesthetic of Black folk-talk– one of imagination as meaning-making. Their word-working emphasizes human freedom and interconnectedness through embodiment, intuition, creativity, and improvisation.

Their most recent production, Keep Liv’n, expresses the importance of cultural care and self-care. They have also directed and created a film entitled, “Humanitas: A Conscious Coloring of Kindness”, based on the relationship of W.E.B. DuBois and Felix Adler, was sponsored and funded by American Ethical Union’s Mossler Fellowship that debuted with New York City.  Other works include “Moving Upon the Face of the Deep,” featuring Dr. Cornel West; “The Black Sacred Communion,” and a collaboration with his life partner, storäe michele, entitled, [the listening heart].

Exemplifying a commitment to equity and inclusion within the arts community at Ohio University, the School of Theatre and Jé are working closely together to decenter the stage and share the spotlight of all those voices that make up our incredible students, staff, and faculty. These kinds of transdisciplinary approaches console and agitate communities in re-imagining and re-claiming narratives that honor the inherited worth and dignity within all people– a love-work that Jé is committed to!

Handles:
#FrequencyHouse #KindredSpirits #CreativeSpirit

Revolutionary Jé Hooper, MPS., MA., D.Min., & PhD candidate
they, them or ‘name’ preferred
Ohio University: School of Interdisciplinary Arts

Topics: Story